#for streaming services like HBOmax and disney+ too | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariacallous · 2 years ago

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I worry about the state of media, namely movies are dying with streaming and HD TVs people can get a home media experience thats equal to what they can get in theaters for most films. I mean for Horror, thrillers, Drama, or comedy it's hard to say that watching in your own home at a time of your choosing isn't the better more immersive experience.

so that leaves only blockbuster movies, mostly Superhero films as movies you can reasonable expect people to go sit in a theater to see

with fewer and fewer movies being able to make money in theaters more and more eggs are going into mega blockbusters and Disney has realized that it can cut corners and squeeze money out of their movies by over counting on CGI and cheaping out on it too so it looks like shit these days.

it's infecting everyone, I mean LotR did SO much real hard effects, famously, and then 10 years latter poor Ian McKellen has a break down crying because he's acting in the Hobbit in a green void because they refused to build a Hobbit living room....

Any ways this wouldn't be so much of a problem, 5 years ago I thought all the energy would move onto TV and streaming, with a golden age of prestige TV, and made for Netflix films pushing into Oscar zone. But everyone has a streaming service now, Disney is acting like Walmart using their Marvel mega brand to back often subpar shows and pull in people (and the kid angle) HBOMax has decided to kill itself, Netflix is struggling to keep up with these mega companies.

with Disney pumping out even cheeper versions of their Marvel movies as TV shows, and HBOMax and Amazon both cutting corners like crazy to push out an epic fantasy show I worry thats the future cheap cheap looking looking shows trying to sell "epic" at the expense of story and mood and there will be literally no where for stories

I think, like a lot of cryptocurrency, that this current trend is unsustainable and a tipping point will be reached.

I also think more people will just get tired of it. What kills me, to a certain extent, is how many people feel obligated? to watch or consume all of these?

I also think if we have copyright reforms and competition enforcement, that would help the situation.

I also think that you'll start to see actors and others just refuse to participate or work in those conditions? Like there's only so much and so far they can go or put up with.

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dizzymoods · 4 years ago

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I need you to go into more detail on your take on this vertical monopolization of the theater industry. From my layperson's perspective it looks like it's going to screw a bunch of potential up and coming, soon to be rich and famous people and I couldn't care less. But I want to know how this is going to affect say a career gaffer or something like that. How will this affect people for whom making movies is a much needed job job.

my major point for that post was that a telecomms company like ATT (which owns HBOMAX & WB) has a vested interest in driving consumers to use their telecomms technonlogy and to discourage them from going to other avenues (theaters). And how the biggest media conglomerate in the world, Disney, just announced that much of their future slate will be available on their streaming service day and date. They tested the waters with charging $30 for Mulan earlier this year (even though i think it’s free for D+ users now?). So, I’m not necessarily talking about vertical integration of theaters so much as how this very sudden pivot to streaming/tech, understandably exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, is shortsighted and a guise for these media conglomerates to abuse workers. I was framing my post from the perspective of an independent director to kind of vent my frustrations as I seek funding for my next movie. and how this news is going to affect the financing of independent american films. And which kind of films get greenlight, accepted to festivals, and picked up for distribution etc. A friend of mine was in talks with an indie producer to make their film this year (obviously didn’t happen) and now that productions are happening again the producer gave notes last week for them to restructure scenes/runtime that might make it more appealing to amazon/netflix. This is an indication of the flattening of artistic expression in american cinema. The kind of sameness of a lot of recent movies from these streaming giants and the boutique companies like Annapurna or a24. This trickles into representation as only certain forms of blackness or femininity or queerness or disability are useful to the algorithms (ex. Black Death). Which is why I said this is a blow to the quality of all american cinema.

I’m also thinking of an increase in situations like w Garret Bradley’s Time which is a phenomenal look into how america’s prison system affects families but is distributed by Amazon Studios, whose parent company is invested in the carceral technologies that lead to the very same fracturing of families the film highlights. But also we are talking about film/media conglomerates so we should also not just be thinking of on set workers like gaffers but also interns, office PAs, assistants, secretaries, etc. My friend was just laid off from Disney. She was a middle manager’s assistant. Pre-pandemic the company was doing bs like not honoring OT, coercing her to do stuff that isn’t her responsibility and reprimanding her if she failed such tasks. With the first wave of layoffs her workload got much more demanding and with the pandemic it became more difficult too as she worked from home with restricted access to their programs (for cybersecurity reasons). These kind of restructuring layoffs put more stress on the people who remain at the company as they are coerced to take on the workload of those who were terminated.

I have another friend who edits video content for ViacomCBS. The merger and subsequent re-launch (re-introduction?) of CBS All Access increased their workload in preparation for that (and now even more as they rebrand it to Paramount+) in addition to the increased demand from the company to push out more online content bc of the pandemic despite laying off over half the team during last years’ merger.

This article from THR details how bad the Disney layoffs have been recently as they restructure to be more stream heavy. Additionally, a lot of these older media congolmerates are taking note from netflix, which has notoriously bad working conditions.

Where I work, our gaffers are being reduced to grips (less pay) and many are working multiple sets (which overworks them and provides less opportunities for other workers) as we invest in digital lighting technologies and post work. There’s talk that next year that we’ll merge our digitechs & retouchers into one job and downsize the numbers in both depts. My parent company has also invested into AR which will eventually make my team (ecomm) obsolete.

Our freelance stylists talk all the time about being replaced by digitechs in fashion who can just digitally add a watch or shoe or dress to a model.

Unreal Engine’s Project Spotlight can mean a future with less G&E, set builders, people in props department, etc. This isn’t necessarily going to happen overnight but look at how quickly and how many film developers and projectionists etc lost their jobs due to digital filmmaking.

There’s a lot going on in media production right now and the pivot to streaming animates anxieties in all these ways (and more). This is to say nothing about the many, many people who will lose their jobs as these tech companies try to make theaters obsolete (ticket checkers, concessions, projectionists, custodial staff, etc)

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burnouts3s3 · 5 years ago

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A Long Post about Disney Plus

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.)

A Long Post about Disney Plus

UPDATE: Movies such as Dumbo and The Lady and the Tramp have not been altered from their original content but instead include a disclaimer stating the movie may contain "outdated cultural depictions". Toy Story 2 still does not have the Stinky Pete scene. The episode "Stark Raving Dad" of the Simpsons is NOT on the platform.

So, the almighty Disney Corporation, aka, that giant conglomerate that has bought Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox and Star Wars, is planning to release Disney Plus, a streaming service that has multiple shows, movies and original content under the Disney Banner.

And frankly, I’m a bit… worried.

Let me start off by saying, I’m not here to criticize you, the reader and potential consumer. However you want to spend your money is your business. If you wish to boycott Disney out of some personal philosophy or ideology or whatever reason, that’s your business. I’m not here to dictate how you spend your cash.

I would, however, like offer a humble suggestion before you decide to dive in head first into a potentially disastrous scenario.

So, Disney Plus is a streaming service that promises to provide lots of content to potential subscribers and let them view whatever content for a subscription. Obviously, this is Disney’s response and plan to combat other streaming services such as Netflix, HBOMax, Apple TV Plus and so on and so forth. While Streaming services aren’t nothing new, the addition of the Disney brand as well as the multiple Intellectual Properties under its umbrella.

What worries me is where both Disney and its potential customers go from here.

There’s already early reports of certain franchises being put “behind the Disney Vault” aka “We’re not rereleasing these films”. For example, the Aliens Franchise is apparently being one of those films.

www.alien-covenant.com/news/di…

However, Alien and other Fox properties will still be locked away in an effort to combat independent theaters and chains from profiting by screening those classic films.

Other reports indicate that certain films will be censored or excluded from the platform entirely. For example, the Siamese Cats from “The Lady and the Tramp” or Jim Crow from Dumbo will be cut out of their respective films entirely (and would explain why Disney is so keen on doing a live action remake of the Lady and the Tramp). Another case would be a Toy Story 2 after credits scene where in Stinky Pete is flirting with some Barbie Dolls and promising them parts for Toy Story 3.

boundingintocomics.com/2019/11…

CNBC also reports that Disney will remove its Jim Crow character from Dumbo. “The Jim Crow character from the original “Dumbo” will be edited out of the film version that appears on the streaming service.” This also isn’t new news. Boardwalk Times noted the scene would be changed back in April. They reported at the time: “The Jim Crow scene in 1941’s Dumbo will also be edited out for the digital library that launches November 12.” The scene was also removed for the recent live-action Dumbo remake from director Tim Burton as well. CNBC also reports a post-credit scene from Toy Story 2 featuring Stinky Pete will also be removed from the film on Disney+. The scene sees Stinky Pete appearing to seduce two Barbie dolls and promises he can get them roles in Toy Story 3.

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Obviously, this is all legal. Disney owns the rights to the properties and they want to have a clean 21st Progressive Identity to hide behind. Besides, I suspected that “Song of the South” was never going to be on the platform.

But this is part of the same problem that everyone, even the most vocal Anti-Disney people, seem to be overlooking.

In which we, the consumer, are trading a product in favor of a service.

What I mean is that because of the success of things like Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc., too many of us have gotten used to the idea that we need to pay a subscription for digital access instead of paying a flat rate for a product. That’s NOT a good sign.

The debate of whether exclusive content such as the Original Series, The Mandalorian, is worth the price of admission or whether streaming services are necessary in the age of digital piracy are one thing, but in the age of dubious ownership and the doing away of physical content, ownership still matters.

It all goes back to one thing; when you subscribe to a service to access your content, the people you pay have the right to revoke your service and keep your money. That’s not a good thing regardless of political ideology. And while it’s tempting for PC gamers to pay for what amounts to a digital license to be onboard the same ship, the fact is having all that content tied to one account risks the danger of losing all that data if you should lose access to your account.

I’m a firm believer of owning physical media. For example, I own a Blu Ray of Assassination Classroom. No matter what I say or do online, I don’t have to be afraid of Chris Sabat kicking down my door and taking my Blu-ray away from me (or, at least, I shouldn’t have to…). Because when I buy a physical product, it’s mine as long as I don’t lose it or it isn’t damaged.

But a subscription (and to a lesser extent, a digital license) can be lost really easily. Even if I were to take extra good care of my account and prevent people from hacking it, guess what? The people who make the content can revoke access.

Remember Minecraft: The Telltale Series? Interesting story. See, when Telltale when bankrupt, one of the games they had made, Minecraft, would no longer be accessible or downloadable from digital platforms, even to those who held the license.

Can you imagine what kind terrifying precedent that sets? Keep a movie or show permanently downloaded onto your storage or lose access to it forever? We’re dealing with a system that makes it so that you don’t own the stuff you paid for now!

Owning a product gives me a plethora of options. It allows me to keep it, re-watch it, lend it to someone else or, if I decide to hock it for drinking money, sell it. It’s not perfect, but it’s preferable to having something that I paid for as opposed to having nothing. My loyalty to whatever company makes said product ends with a transaction (a transaction that can be easily outmaneuvered through a 3rd party purchase or sale). With a service, you can’t help but be loyal to said company.

If I start badmouthing Disney and Disney decides to deny me access to my subscription, my account or my digital licenses, guess what? I’m up a particularly smelly creek without a paddle.

I doubt Disney will go that far and will adopt a similar strategy to Funimation, as in they give digital vouchers for their Blu-ray series but it’s only redeemable on Disney Plus the same way digital vouchers from Funimation Blu-rays are only redeemable on its streaming service, FunimationNow. I also understand the economic argument in which lots of lower income families cannot afford specific shows and just want a plethora of options. But I know a step in the wrong direction when I see one and with stuff like Kevin Feige saying true Marvel fans must subscribe to said service or Disney saying Disney Plus subscribers will have early access to Frozen 2 or Captain Marvel, the case is there.

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This is what happened to things like Dumbo and Lady and the Tramp and Toy Story 2. When you don’t own a physical content of your media, you’re at the whims of a corporation that can alter it whenever they want.

We all have different opinions when it comes to taste or entertainment. But whatever your feelings on the Disney corporation, whether you think of Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership of the Star Wars franchise, whether you thought the Last Jedi was a piece of junk, whatever you feel about Disney’s relationship with China, one thing is certain.

When you buy a product, you own that product. When you buy a service, the service owns you.

#disney plus #disney+#disney #sjw #the last jedi #star wars #gamergate #netflix

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nerdfighterwhatevernumbers · 4 years ago

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i watched a review of hbomax and the person was like ‘yeah it’s only a couple bucks more than netflix so if you’re more than a casual viewer it’s totally worth it’ and that brings up the general problem i have with these things

like first off it’s only a couple bucks more than netflix if you have the $12.99 package not the more basic 9.99 netflix, and secondly it’s only a couple bucks more IF YOU GET RID OF YOUR NETFLIX. Otherwise you’re more than doubling your entertainment bill

You can’t phrase it as if it’s ‘only’ this much more than Netflix without taking into account people will still have Netflix unless you actually endorse that it’s worth getting rid of Netflix. Netflix has way more accessibility and original shows and movies than hbomax, it’s not going to be worth getting rid of for most people, so no, it’s not actually ‘only’ a few bucks more every month because most won’t get rid of their netflix and it will just become a second bill

this is also what’s been bugging me about fans obsessed with supporting a show ‘the right way’ because they ignore how much money that actually takes to do for every show. take infinity train- if you wanted to support it the first time around, as far as i remember, it was never on hulu, so you needed to have a cable package for CN to watch and support the first two seasons. Now that it’s on HBOmax it’s all your fault if the show doesn’t get renewed if you can’t do this whole new app on TOP of the old cable package you were supposed to be supporting the show with before. Unless they literally want you to get rid of your cable package for a new service the second one of your shows changes platforms, they are asking you to pay more and more for one show and you are personally to blame if that’s too much money.

Add another show to that- let’s say Amphibia. Of course you’re supposed to have disney+ and watch the first season on Disney+ since it’s not on the Disney Now app that comes with a cable subscription and now that’s only an extra $7 per month so that is a better price than adding $15 to your bill with HBOmax, so it’s not unreasonable to have Netflix and a $7 Disney+ account for this show, right?

Except Amphibia is on its second season and if you don’t watch it live as it airs well you’re also killing the show, it is entirely on you if this gets cancelled because you aren’t watching it as it airs on cable, even though Disney+ does not have new episodes on its app and you HAVE to have cable to watch currently airing seasons legally.

See, the problem with this is extremist fans will then blame you for not making the time to watch things live and also not paying for cable on top of the streaming app, and if I want infinity train and amphibia, well then it’s my ‘responsibility’ to have a cable package, disney+, AND HBOmax so the show doesn’t get cancelled. That’s either on top of Netflix, or it’ll be my responsibility to get rid of Netflix, which only asks that i watch She Ra in one place under one app, the end.

And of course I don’t actually pay for all these things, I have different people’s logins for different apps and while I’d pay for netflix or maybe hulu if I lost those logins (because watching them on the tv is more convenient than pirating on my laptop and Netflix has subtitles and audio describe), I just wouldn’t watch disney+ if I had to pay for it myself. Hence, why I don’t watch HBOmax

But of course, people talking about these apps and if they’re worth it and hardcore fans asking you to watch the show in all its forms on paid platforms are not going to advocate for password sharing because that’s not supporting the show ‘the right way’ or it’s ‘stealing’ as if lending your friend a dvd is ‘stealing’ because they didn’t buy one themself

Also, because Disney+ just straight up doesn’t have the first episode of Darkwing Duck, any American Dragon, or any Filmore for no apparent reason, I don’t even have the options to watch those legally. The fans of these shows care less about pirating these because they’re already cancelled, but Disney Fans TM suuuuper care about Disney not getting every last cent of money they can.

It’s just obnoxious when people point to shows hosted on multiple platforms or streaming services that intentionally divide up what is and isn’t on their app (disney keeping things in their vault or only having ongoing content in one app and HBOmax only having ‘some’ DC content so people also have to pay for their DC streaming service) and act like you’re killing a show by not paying as much money as possible. And paying as much money as possible is exactly why these services are built this way

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jmsa1287 · 5 years ago

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Apple TV+'s 'The Morning Show' is Mad as Hell but Will Anyone Watch?

Apple’s foray into streaming TV is upon us and its flagship series “The Morning Show” is...fine.

With the launch of Apple TV+, the new streaming service from the biggest tech company in the world, on Nov. 1 it officially marks the beginning of the so-called "Streaming Wars." The intangible battle has been a looming threat for the last few years — ever since Apple and Disney both announced they'd be going head-to-head with already well-established streamers like Netflix and Amazon. (The Mouse House's Disney+ will launch on Nov. 12 and we'll get a handful of new steamers next year, including HBOMax, Peacock and Quibi.)

Apple and Disney have different strategies when it comes to the rollout of their over the top services. With its impressive ownership of some of the biggest intellectual property in the world, Disney will launch with a "Star Wars" spinoff show called "The Mandalorian," along with a "High School: The Musical" series, but more notably, the company revealed in an epic Twitter thread just all the content that will be available on Disney+, ranging from the obscure ("Smart House") to its most beloved films ("Beauty and the Beast," "Avengers").

Apple doesn't have a content library as deep as Disney, so it's setting sail with a number of brand-new shows in hopes it will be enough to get people to sign up for its $4.99 monthly service. And Apple TV+'s biggest bet is "The Morning Show," a star-studded adult drama about a morning news program in the throes of the #MeToo Movement. It's very topical and features some of the biggest celebrities in TV history, including Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon reuniting from playing sisters on "Friends" as well as Steve Carell, marking his first major TV role since "The Office."

It'll be determined whether or not the trio of A-listers will be enough for casual TV watchers and the more diehards to fork over the nearly $60 a year for Apple TV+ -- folks who are likely already shelling out good money for Netflix, Amazon, a music streaming service, and the number of other streamers out there like Hulu (which Disney has full control of), The Criterion Channel, HBO Now, and Shudder. (Not to mention many people pay for cable on top of that.) It's likely early reviews of "The Morning Show" will play a significant role in getting people to sign up or skip adding another streaming service to their diet.

"The Morning Show" is fine. It's not a disaster that its odd trailers would have you believe. Loosely based on journalist Brain Stelter's book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat Worlds of Morning TV," the new drama is that adult middlebrow fare that has a little too much swearing for network TV, has a higher budget ($15 million an episode!) and looks sleeker but... untimely feels like it would air on CBS primetime in 1995. Maybe not a bad thing for some! Both Aniston and Witherspoon give great performances, playing veteran "Morning Show" anchor Alex Levy and a non-nonsense conservative reporter from a local news station down South, Bradley Jackson respectively. In a supporting role, Carell plays Mitch Kessler, Alex's longtime "Morning Show" cohost who is outed in the first minutes of the show's pilot, directed by TV vet Mimi Leder, as the latest celeb to be accused of sexual misconduct.

Indeed, the confident pilot is the best of the three episodes Apple provided. Alex wakes up to learn The New York Times published an article about the allegations against Mitch, who she calls her "on-air husband," at 3:30 a.m., learning with the rest of the world about this TV's dad's transgressions. Reacting to the leaked story, Alex has to quickly prep for the show, figuring out how to react on live TV and what to say getting guidance from her producer Chip (Mark Duplass) and the newly appointed network president Cory (a great Billy Crudup). Later on in the episode, Bradley finds herself going mega-viral for having a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" moment when a protest she's covering gets out of hand.

Almost everyone on "The Morning Show" is mad as hell. Alex can't stop crying and lashing out from the revelation about Mitch, which is causing her professional and personal lives to be turned upside down. Bradley is sick and tired of trying to do good journalism while constantly bumping up against the patriarchy and people's lack of interest in hard news. Chip's head is constantly spinning while trying to manage the Mitch controversy and finding his replacement along with constantly reeling in Alex. Cory, who is sly but seems the calmest and optimistic about the situation, is feeling the heat from the network execs to get "The Morning Show" on the right path. Mitch is mad at the whole damn world for being a "victim" of what he calls the second wave of Me Too Movement. This is where "The Morning Show" gets a bit dicey. It doesn't hesitate to show you Mitch's side of the story ("I didn't rape anyone!" he yells more than once). He admits to having affairs albeit consensual, unwilling to understand the power he has in that kind of relationship. There's also a scene in which Mitch gets to have an odd positive moment when he's discussing his allegations with a sketch filmmaker, played here by Martin Short, who admits to being a predator.

"The Morning Show" has a lot on its mind but thankfully it doesn't take itself too seriously and has a necessary undercurrent of comedy that pops up in the right places. It feels like the right time for a splashy drama to take on real-life headlines about prominent men facing consequences for their inappropriate actions (in this case viewers won't be able to stop thinking of Matt Lauer and his exit from "Today"). And there really hasn't been a good TV show about the newsroom in recent years; Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama "The Newsroom" was the biggest kind of a disaster. The short-lived NBC comedy "Great News," starring Andrea Martin, didn't have the bite to take off and was more focused on a 'will-they-won't-they' relationship. It's a bit crumby that "The Morning Show" has the added pressure of being Apple TV+'s flagship series. If it debuted on Netflix this week, it would probably get the kinds of reviews Netflix shows usually get — mixed-to-positive. There's an exciting energy to the first three episodes but it suffers from the feeling that the showrunner, Kerry Ehrin, who took over the drama after it was developed, was desperate to fill up each hour (and in some cases, over an hour) each episode. "The Morning Show" suffers from a lot of the same symptoms Peak TV programs usually have except it's under a magnifying glass. Though timely and well-acted, there are probably better ways to spend $5 a month.

#tv #apple #apple tv #apple tv+#the morning show #jennifer aniston #reese witherspoon #steve carell #peak tv #mark duplass #billy crudup

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ariminiria · 2 years ago

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How did the streaming wars get into place anyways???

Well this is partly speculation, but here's what I think happened:

So way back when, Netflix started as a mail in rental service, like Blockbuster without having to leave your house. Then Netflix became essentially the first streaming service because they thought hey! Instead of paying for rentals all the time, or having to buy super expensive cable packages to get 5 billion channels you'll never watch all so you can see one TV show or movie every once in a while, how about we round up the people's favorites and put them all in one place for people to watch! Then we do a subscription fee in place of the usual rental charge.

And this became quite successful! And Hulu was formed because that's a pretty good idea! Let's get in on this and make some profit.

So Netflix and Hulu were the top competitors for years because they were really the only two doing it.

Cable people presumably noticed that less people were buying their packages so they had to figure out how to still get that sweet sweet cash. So the parent corporations who owned those things started jumping in.

Blockbuster and Family video died an undeserving death in the meantime.

Disney acquired Hulu, but that wasn't enough for them so instead of putting all Disney stuff on one streaming service they said "let's get more money!" and made Disney+

No clue where HBOmax ties into this. I think it's also just a regular TV channel if I'm not wrong? So probably one of those cable people who scrambled for something to keep profits up.

Amazon was like "let's be annoying too!" and made Prime.

Now here's the thing, if all streaming services have the same stuff on them, people will only buy one. So what's to stop someone from leaving Netflix for Hulu because it's cheaper? So Netflix pops out something called a "Netflix original" and boom, now you've got people interested. They're gonna stay with Netflix.

Whoa, but hold the phone, Disney doesn't like that Netflix is taking their people so they stop letting Netflix buy the rights to some of their most popular movies (aka this is one of the reasons why some shows disappear off of Netflix). Now you can only see that movie on Hulu, or maybe only Disney+

HBO starts getting in on this "originals" thing and Amazon and every other thing under the sun does too.

Then some other service offers a package deal so that you can get all of these streaming services at a discounted rate rather than paying for all of them and bankrupting yourself!

Congrats, you reinvented cable.

#long post #a lot of this is badly explained

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noircartoons · 3 years ago

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Imagine being able to watch the cuphead show. (This ask has been made by "Don't have Netflix and too scared to pirate" gang)

ey no don't be scared to pirate! you don't owe netflix shit and you can support the creators in other ways.

here's a kisscartoon link, it's already set on the first episode. Don't click on any of the ads and pop ups, and if it opens a new tab just close it, and you should be good! you can also get a simple antivirus if you're nervous, though some computers and cellphones tend to be made with an antivirus program on them so sometimes you won't even need it. that's all really, the porn ads are annoying AS HELL, but hey you don't have to pay for netflix!

a thing i also used to do is make a month free tirial on netflix and then delete my account one day after it expired, i had so many netflix accounts during that time kwkdkwnfnwk

but yeah, don't be scared of pirating! some things can be a bit harder, i myself don't mess with torrent a lot bc it has some extra steps so it can be a bit more likely to get a virus, but on safer stuff like cartoons and movies? rarely you'll find me even going to the og streaming service kakdkwmdnwk why pay for disney+ and netflix and hbomax when i got my good ol' kisscartoon, watchcartoonsonline and google drive links kIakdkwkkdkwkfk

#pierre.txt #ask #do be careful ofc #but also dont be super afraid of it ya know #for cartoons and movies it can be chill depending on where you go to

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smokeybrand · 4 years ago

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Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

The rise of streaming has changed the entire landscape of movie making and i kind of love it. I wrote about how Netflix fundamentally shifted how films are made and distributed a while back so, if your curious on my take about that, you can search for that within this blog. This one isn’t about how the barrier to entry for film has been dramatically lowered but more about how these services have the ridiculous potential to right the wrongs forced upon fans and creators alike, by disingenuous studios. The Snyder Cut is a perfect example of this contradiction. For years, Warner Bros. refused to even entertain the idea of releasing Snyder’s cut of the film because Justice league was a financial flop. The ridiculous ting about that is the fact it failed because Warner made it fail.

In their hurry to compete with the MCU, they mandated the dark tone of Superman because Batman is their cash cow. We had just come of Nolan’s epic Dark Knight trilogy and, instead of understanding why that narrative tone fit for that character and finding one that aligns with Superman, they decided to just make an entire universe of brooding, violent, edgelord, nonsense and hired the guy who bright the most cynical comic book, ever, to the big screen, to do it. The Snyderverse exists because Batman made billions of dollars. lost in the hubris of “Why so serious” money, they turned Superman into Bat, Batman in to the f*cking Punisher, Wonder Woman into Girl Batman, though, that was rectified a little bit in 84 to abysmal results, Aquaman into Dude-Bro Wet Batman, Cyborg into Metal Emo Batman, and Flash into Speedster Spider-man. Warner chose to chase the superficial aesthetic in hope to cash in on that Nolan-adjacent tone, instead of actually building a world and it has crippled the DCEU to this day. That is until ATT came through with the biggest of dick energy.

ATT bought out Warner Media and HBO in an effort to compete with the juggernaut that is Disney and immediately forced the studio to release Snyder’s version of League. There has been an overwhelming amount of fan support for this clusterf*ck of a cinematic universe and, while i don’t particularly care for it because i don’t like how Snyder make’s movies, i recognize that there is a pretty large audience for this stuff. ATT recognized this, too, and since they needed content for their fledgling HBOmax streaming service, they basically forced WB to let Snyder have is due. This flew in the face of everything Warner was trying to do because they had already decided that the Snyderverse was a bust, even though they made it a point to craft the Snyderverse that way in the first place, to standout from the overly kiddy, overly commercial, laughably successful, MCU. They fired Snyder for doing the exact job they hired him to do and then gotbutt0hurt it didn’t work they way they wanted it to. That wasn’t Snyders fault. He delivered exactly what he pitched. Every film Zack Snyder has made, is some semblance of Watchmen. That’s the only movie he knows how to make. You can’t be mad that a man who noodles for catfish, comes home with a Gooch, even though halfway through you decided you wanted trout. ATT understood this, saw the potential duckets to be had, and let Snyder play in his edgelord, emo, universe to his heart’s content on WB’s dime and it paid off.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is four hours of bloated, unwieldy, brain-dead, spectacle, slathered in the worst kind of superficial pretension and grandiose self-indulgence. It’s so far up it’s own ass and i wouldn’t have it any other way. Zack Snyder was right. This thing’s ridiculous numbers prove that. This is his victory and and he deserves all of the shine. Now, i personally think that Zack Snyder is an awful filmmaker, but i am glad the Snyder Cut exists and i even more supportive of #RestoretheSnyderverse. I don’t care for his take on these characters but dude has a story he wants to tell and he deserves to tell it, especially after how dirty Warner did him him the first place. Listen, i cannot stress enough how much i think Snyder was the wrong choice to bring these characters to life but he had a plan and the studios wrecked it before throwing hum under the bus. Dude knew what he was doing and this version for the film proves that. Proof that Warner hates. They’ve already gone into over time distancing themselves from the project, the president of Warner Media going so far as to say this will be it for the Snyder verse. Nah. Not when it’s doing the numbers it is and ATT is running out of room to horde that cash. On the same day Warner released that statement about the Snyderverse being dead was released, someone leaked that ATT is trying to use HBOmax as an outlet to restore that laughably profitable Snyderverse. If these rumors are true, then the fact that HBOmax exists is how this version of the DCEU continues in direct competition with the Hamadaverse of films. Warner is, effectively, competing with itself at this point and i kind of love it, all thanks to streaming.

I love director’s cuts of films. They almost always come off better than the original, theatrical, release. Studios often butcher and rend a creator’s vision in order to maximize profits by fitting in the most viewing at a theater or alter key elements of a narrative that doesn’t jive with generic test audiences. I understand that the movie industry is a business but this is what happens when you monetize art. It’s absurd. This is why we have seven different versions of Blade Runner and three version of Highlander II. This is why Alien 3 is so f*cking garbage but the Assembly Cut is head-and-shoulder better. Kingdom of Heaven is a perfect example of how the corporate hatchet can ruin a film. Ridley Scott’s initial vision for that movie is three hours and some change long. There’s no way theaters can show enough screenings for that to turn a profit so Warner cut it down to two and a half hours with credits. If you have close to three and a half hours of storytelling but cut out a whole f*cking hour of it, your narrative isn’t going to make any f*cking sense but Warner didn’t care. They made the executive decision to ruin this movie and, for years, i hated this film. But then i saw the director’s cut, that three hour version. Kingdom of Heaven is f*cking brilliant when it’s told the way it was intended to be told. We had to wait for the home media release of the film to see that though because the business of film hobbled the artistic value of the vision. Streaming changes all of that.

Disney has a four hour, re-cut, version for Rise of Skywalker in the works to air exclusively on Disney+. That film is supposed to fix a lot of what Kathleen Kennedy broke with her abject disdain for the Star Wars universe and her ludicrously bloated ego. This wouldn’t have been a thing if not for Disney+, if not for streaming. Four hour epics can turn a profit if the audience is there and you aren’t beholden to the studio-theater system that has gimped film creators for decades. If Netflix was around when i was a kid, maybe Anderson’s intended version of Event Horizon could have been released there after the theatrical version had it’s run, instead of just being lost to time. Event Horizon is an example of how the wrong test audience can solicit a knee jerk hatchet to your film because suburban moms don’t care for satanic visuals and over-the-top gore. If Netflix was around, maybe Jennifer’s Body could have been a hit instead of a cult classic. Maybe the studio could have marketed the film like the director wanted instead of running on the notions that “Megan Fox hot” and selling her sex appeal to teenage boys, only for them to be disappointed when it’s more a nuanced tale of female relationships with underlying tones of feminist lesbianism. Jennifer’s Body was already one of my favorite films but when i saw the director’s cut, i was incensed. They massacred my girl because horny teenagers didn’t like the test screenings. The studios promised these dickbutt horndogs a film that didn’t exist and then got mad when the profits didn’t materialize. Dropping that sh*t on Netflix would have gone a long way to recoup some of them losses.

Now, not all studios are terrible. A24 and Neon are really great at letting their creators, create what they want, but they lack the level of major studio resources to do it. The same joint that brought you Ex Machina can’t afford to deliver the next Avatar or Marvel film but there’s no way Paramount releases something as risky as Under the Skin. Now that streaming exists, you can bypass all of that. Studios can make their more indie or experimental sh*t and drop it directly to the consumer, instead of trying to run it on a money pit imprint like Fox Searchlight. To take it a step further, you can go directly to a joint like Netflix or Amazon Studios, and bypass the bullsh*t studio system as a whole. Hell, you can even leverage that into getting your own sh*t, like the Avatar cats did to Nickelodeon. Paramount needs content for their streaming service, Avatar was shafted by Nickelodeon forcing them to take a run at Netflix but that proved to be a not so ideal partnership, so Paramount came back with a peace offering and now these cats have an entire studio to themselves, just to make more Aang stuff. I am absolutely in love with the leverage these streaming services have over the film industry now. It feels like we can get back to the Nineties where sh*t that might be more risky financially or alienating to large audiences, can still see the light of day. Creators can make the sh*t they want and still get their vision to the audience, even if the studios ruin their flick for theatrical profits.

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un-enfant-immature · 5 years ago

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What to expect in digital media in 2020

As we start 2020, the media and entertainment sectors are in flux. New technologies are enabling new types of content, streaming platforms in multiple content categories are spending billions in their fight for market share and the interplay between social platforms and media is a central topic of global political debate (to put it lightly).

As TechCrunch’s media columnist, I spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives in North America and Europe last year about the shifts underway across everything from vertically-oriented video series to physics engines in games to music royalty payments. Looking toward the year ahead, here are some of the high-level changes I expect we will see in media in 2020, broken into seven categories: film & TV, gaming, visual & audio effects, social media, music, podcasts and publishing.

Film and TV

In film and television, the battle to compete with Netflix continues with more robust competition than last year. In the U.S., Disney is off to a momentous start with 10 million Disney+ subscribers upon its launch in November and some predicting it will hit 25 million by March (including those on free trials or receiving it for free via Disney’s partnership with Verizon). Bundled with its two other streaming properties, Hulu and ESPN+, Disney+ puts Disney alongside Amazon and Netflix as the Big Three.

Consumers will only pay for so many subscriptions, often one, two, or all of the Big Three (since Amazon Prime Video is included with the broader Prime membership) then a smaller service that best aligns with their personal taste and favorite show of the moment.

AT&T’s HBOMax launches in May with a $14.99/month price tag and is unlikely to break into the echelon of the Big Three, but could be a formidable second tier competitor. Alongside it will be Apple TV+. With a $4.99/month subscription, Apple’s service only includes a small number of original productions, an HBO strategy as HBO gets bundled into a larger library. CBS All Access, Showtime, and NBCUniversal’s upcoming (in April) Peacock fall in this camp as well.

Across Europe, regional media conglomerates will find success in expanding local SVOD and AVOD competitors to Netflix that launched last year — or are set to launch in the next few weeks — like BritBox in the UK, Joyn in Germany and Salto in France. Netflix’s growth in coming from outside the U.S. now so its priority is buying more international shows that will compel new demographics to subscribe.

The most interesting new development in 2020 though will be the April launch of Quibi, the $4.99/month service offering premium shows shot for mobile-first viewing that has already secured $1 billion in funding commitments and $150 million in advertising revenue. Quibi shows will be bite-size in length (less than 15 minutes) and vertically-oriented. The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into commissioning established names to create dozens of them. Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro each have Quibi programs and NBC and CBS are creating news shows. The terms it is offering are enticing.

Quibi, which plans to release 125 pieces of content (i.e. episodes) per week and spend $470 million on marketing this year, is an all-or-nothing bet with little room to iterate if it doesn’t get it right the first time; it needs hit shows that break into mainstream pop culture to survive. Billionaire founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have set expectations sky-high for the launch; expect the press to slam it in April for failing to meet those expectations and for the platform to redeem itself as a few of its shows gain traction in the months that follow.

Meanwhile, live sports remains the last hope of broadcast TV networks as all other shows go to streaming. Consumers still value watching sports in real-time. Streaming services are coming for live sports too, however, and will make progress toward that goal in 2020. Three weeks ago, DAZN secured the rights to the 2021/22 season of Germany’s Champions League, beating out broadcaster Sky which has shown the matches for the last 20 years. Amazon and YouTube continue to explore bids for sports rights while Facebook and Twitter are stepping back from their efforts. YouTube’s “YouTube TV” and Disney’s “Hulu with Live TV” will cause more consumers to cancel cable TV subscriptions in 2020 and go streaming-only.

The winners in the film & TV sector right now are top production companies. The war for streaming video dominance driving several of the world’s wealthiest companies (and individuals) to pour tens of billions of dollars into content. Large corporations own the distribution platforms here; the only “startups” to enter with strength — DAZN and Quibi — have been launched by billionaires and started with billion-dollar spending commitments. The entrepreneurial opportunity is on the content creation side — with producers creating shows not with software developers creating platforms.

Gaming

The gaming market is predicted to grow nearly 9% year-over-year from $152 billion globally in 2019 to $165 billion in 2020, according to research firm Newzoo, with more than two billion people playing games each year. Gaming is now widespread across all demographic groups. Casual mobile games are responsible for the largest portion of this (and 45% of industry revenue) but PC gaming continues to grow (+4% last year) and console gaming was the fastest growing category last year (+13%).

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Fortnite enticed consumers with the benefits of a cross-platform game that allows players to move between PC, mobile and console and it is setting expectations that other games do the same. Last October we saw the Call of Duty franchise come to mobile and reach a record 100 million downloads in its first week. This trend will continue and it will spread the free-to-play business model that is the norm in mobile games to many PC and console franchises in the process.

Gaming is moving to the social forefront. Many people are turning to massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like Fortnite and PUBG to socialize, with gameplay as a secondary interest. Games are virtual worlds where players socialize, build things, and own assets much like in the real world. That results in an increasingly fluid interplay between socializing in games and in physical life, much as socializing in the virtual realms of social apps like Instagram or Twitter is now viewed as part of “real world” life.

Expect VCs to bet big on the thesis that “games are the new social networks” in 2020. Large investment firms that a year ago wrote off the category of gaming as “content bets” not fit for VC are now actively hunting for deals.

On this point, there are several startups (like Klang Games, Darewise Entertainment, Singularity 6 and Clockwork Labs) that raised millions in VC funding to create open world games that will launch (in beta at least) in 2020. These are virtual worlds where all players exist in the same instance of the world rather than being capped at 100 or so players per instance. Their visions center of digital realms where people will contribute to in-game economies, create friendships and ultimately earn income just like their “real-world” lives. Think next-gen Second Life. Expect them to take time to seed their worlds with early adopters in 2020 before any of them gain mainstream traction in 2021.

Few are as excited about social interaction in games as Facebook, it seems. Eager to own critical turf in the next paradigm shift of social media, Facebook will accelerate its gaming push this year. In late 2019, it acquired Madrid-based PlayGiga — which was working on cloud gaming and 5G technology — and the studio behind the hit VR game Beat Saber. It also secured exclusive rights to the VR versions of popular games like Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and “Splinter Cell” for Oculus. Horizon, its virtual world for social interaction within VR, is expected to launch this year as well.

Facebook is betting on AR/VR as the paradigm shift in consumer computing that will replace mobile; it is pouring billions into its efforts to own the hardware and infrastructure pieces which are several years of R&D away from primetime. In the meantime, the consumer shift to social interaction in virtual worlds is occurring in established formats — mobile, PC, and console — so it will work to build the bridge for consumers from that to the future.

Lastly, cloud gaming was one of last year’s biggest headlines with the launch of Google Stadia and you should expect it to be again this year. By moving games to cloud hosting, consumers can play the highest quality games from lower quality devices, greatly expanding the market of potential players. By bundling many such games into a subscription offering, Google and others hope to entice consumers to try many more games.

As TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney argued, however, cloud gaming is likely a feature for existing subscription gaming platforms — namely Playstation Now and Xbox Game Pass — more so than the basis for a new platform to differentiate. The minor latency inherent in playing a cloud-hosted game makes it unattractive to hardcore gamers (who would rather download the game). Next to Sony and Microsoft’s offerings, Stadia’s limited game selection fails to stand out. The competition will only heat up this year with the entry of Amazon. Google needs to launch the Stadia integration with YouTube and the Share State feature that it promoted in its Stadia announcement to really drive consumer interest.

Visual and audio effects

#TechCrunch

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localbizlift · 5 years ago

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What to expect in digital media in 2020

Film and TV

Gaming

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Visual and audio effects

#marketing

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pmsocialmedia · 5 years ago

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What to expect in digital media in 2020

Film and TV

Gaming

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Visual and audio effects

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/36CfMsa

#IFTTT #Social – TechCrunch

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stayskrunchyinmilk · 5 years ago

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Stays Krunchy in Milk Episode 321: Too Beautiful to Eat

Once again, your fav crew is back on the set and we hit the ground running. I don’t think we have ever gotten to a show title this early in an episode. We chat intoxication and why it can be bad, good, hilarious, and dangerous. We discuss cord cutting and streaming services as Disney+ loom on the horizon. Talking Disney of course means we talk Marvel. Deep dives on the internet lead to a discussion on phones and Box shading Tee for liking his messages with his ol’ hating ass.

Alternate Title: It’s Hard Out Here for an Avenger

#Comedy #Culture #Social #Foodie #Podcast #230HuronRdEast #SusysSoup #DietaryRestrictions #Swine #RedMeat #Swan #Goose #Drunk #Stoned #TheHunchbackofNotreDame #Hulu #Spotify #Netflix #HBOMax #Sling #PlaystationVue #Marvel #MCU #Android #IOS #ConsoleWars

#Comedy Culture Social Foodie Podcast 230HuronRdEast SusysSoup DietaryRestrictions Swine RedMeat Swan Goose Drunk Stoned #TheHunchbackofNotreDame Hulu Spotify Netflix HBOMax Sling PlaystationVue Marvel MCU Android IOS ConsoleWars

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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The Mare of Easttown Finale Broke HBO Max

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Late on the Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, WarnerMedia did the unthinkable: they disappointed my mother.

At precisely 10:09 p.m. ET, the following text flashed across my phone screen “Omg. HBO is down! Too many people trying to watch Mare”

Sure enough, the anticipated finale for crime drama Mare of Easttown was not loading on the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max and it would remain inaccessible for around 25 minutes. The Internet reacted with disappointment similar to Mother Bojalad.

Everyone checking Twitter to confirm @hbomax is down during #MareOfEasttown finale. pic.twitter.com/xG4Ml7094R

— Cat Williams (@dizzycatdesign) May 31, 2021

#MareOfEasttown the IT guys at HBO Max right now. pic.twitter.com/5NnaKhX7d4

— Will Leggett (@wtleggett) May 31, 2021

How authentic is Mare of Easttown? HBO Max worked fine for me for six episodes but now is refusing to load for the seventh, in what I assume is a tribute to the Phillies' bullpen.

— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) May 31, 2021

Thankfully, HBO Max got itself into fighting shape and Mare of Easttown was eventually available to stream. Viewers got to see the shocking conclusion to the Kate Winslet miniseries. The outage, however, bodes ominously for streaming television’s future.

Sometimes things break on the Internet. The World Wide Web is a sophisticated, sensitive beast spawned from Transatlantic cables, millions of computers and servers, and just a dash of imagination. Longtime Internet users have grown accustomed to the occasionally imperfect nature of the medium. Occasionally things fall apart, the servers cannot hold. But outages and imperfections in our streaming enterprises cannot remain the status quo now that real money is involved.

Just about every major media conglomerate has made clear that the future of television (and in some sad cases, movies as well) will be streamed. Netflix leads the pack with 208 million subscribers worldwide. It’s followed by Amazon Prime Video (175 million), Tencent (123 million), iQIYI (119 million), and Disney+ (103 million). That’s nearly three-quarters of a billion people subscribing to just five streaming services (granted, the number is undoubtedly smaller as people subscribe to several streamers).

According to a recent study conducted by three major media companies, 25 million U.S. households are expected to cancel their cable subscriptions within the next five years in favor of streaming. That number is on top of the 25 million U.S. households that have already cut the cord. Streaming will soon be the norm, if it’s not already. And that all makes it a bit strange that some streamers don’t seem fully prepared to handle the technical burden of all that incoming traffic.

In HBO Max’s case with the Mare of Easttown finale, it wasn’t technically that much traffic to begin with. WarnerMedia’s streaming service held up just fine for big cinematic releases like Wonder Woman 1984 and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Though viewership numbers in the streaming world remain unreliable, it makes sense that those big IPs would garner more total viewers than an HBO crime drama. Last week’s penultimate Mare garnered roughly 1.2 million viewers, which is excellent for pay cable but not an insurmountable technical challenge.

The issue likely lies in the way that we’ve traditionally watched television. For nearly the entirety of the medium’s existence, popular TV shows were appointment viewing. A viewer must be on their couch to watch an episode at a precise time or risk never seeing it again. In the streaming world, timeliness doesn’t matter as much anymore, with many viewers happy to watch a show whenever they get around to it. In fact, streamers like Netflix and Hulu just unceremoniously drop their new content at 12:01 a.m. PT.

Since Mare of Easttown was an HBO series that airs on terrestrial television as well, many streamers wanted to watch right at 10 p.m. so as to not get left behind. Unfortunately, it would seem as though that much traffic targeted at one moment was too much for HBO Max’s servers to bear.

We’re aware some customers may be experiencing issues streaming #HBOMax and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this as quickly as possible.

— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) May 31, 2021

With WarnerMedia still trying to bridge the streaming and traditional TV worlds gap through HBO and HBO Max, that kind of delay just shouldn’t be happening with streaming enterprises anymore. What’s more is that Warner and HBO have gone all in on the Game of Thrones prequel train, having commissioned no fewer than six spinoffs to the network’s titanic hit. Once those start rolling out of the gate, HBO Max can’t afford to be caught with its streaming pants down.

Ironically, reinforcements for HBO Max’s technical issues might be on the way thanks to a traditionally cable-focused company. AT&T recently admitted defeat in its stewardship of WarnerMedia and spun the company off into a merger with Discovery, Inc. Though Discovery is best known as a major cable player, the launch of its bespoke discovery+ streaming app went off without a hitch earlier this year.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

With the combined powers of WarnerMedia and Discovery, perhaps the next appointment-viewing HBO crime drama won’t disappoint my mom.

The post The Mare of Easttown Finale Broke HBO Max appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2SKJklk

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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amostexcellentblog · 4 years ago

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Even if greenlighting a JL sequel is too expensive for a streaming service I feel like HBOmax could easily greenlight a Superman miniseries with Henry and Amy that would cost about the same as a prestige series like The Crown or GoT. It wouldn’t have the same scope as MoS, but it wouldn’t look CW cheap either. Get a good screenwriter and it won’t really matter, after BvS and JL the characters need a more intimate storyline anyway.

You can do a similar thing with Affleck, see if he’ll rework his Batman script into a miniseries.

Do that and then see where to go from there based on audience reaction. It would be so easy to do this, and see how it makes sense as a way to compete with Disney+, but that would require WB not to be vengeful idiots.

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years ago

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New from Kevin Wozniak on Kevflix: What’s Streaming This Month? – September

Here are my picks for the movies coming to Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Criterion Channel, and HBOMax in September. This month offers up many unique choices, from original films to Hollywood classics.

NETFLIX

Full list of everything coming to Netflix in September can be found here.

THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY (Robert Zemeckis, 1984/1989/1990)

A trilogy that is full of life, fun, and originality.

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (Antonio Campo, 2020)

An all-star cast of Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Bill Skarsgård, and Jason Clarke lead Antonio Campos’ thriller about corruption and brutality in a postwar backwoods town.

GREASE (Randal Kleiser, 1978)

A musical classic.

I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)

The latest directorial effort from the great Charlie Kaufman looks like a haunting mind-bender.

MAGIC MIKE (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)

One of Steven Soderbergh’s best features a scene-stealing performance from Matthew McConaughey.

NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE (Joel Gallen, 2001)

This comedy satire of teen romcoms is still hilarious and has aged quite well.

RATCHED (Evan Romansky, Ryan Murphy, 2020)

I don’t usually post about shows on here, but a prequel series looking at One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest villain Nurse Ratched starring Sarah Paulson in the titular role sounds too good to ignore.

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (Jeff Orlowski, 2020)

I heard good buzz about this documentary out of Sundance 2020, as it looks at the power of social media and the effect it can have on the world

WILDLIFE (Paul Dano, 2018)

Paul Dano’s directorial debut is a quiet and powerful look at a crumbling family in the 1950’s.

PRIME VIDEO

Full list of everything coming to Prime Video in September can be found here.

THE BIRDCAGE (Mike Nichols, 1996)

Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are marvelous in this Mike Nichols comedy.

CASINO ROYALE (Martin Campbell, 2006)

The film that introduced Daniel Craig into the Bond franchise is also the best Bond film ever made.

GEMINI MAN (Ang Lee, 2019)

Will Smith plays an assassin who is being hunted by a clone of his younger self in Ang Lee’s technical marvel.

THE GRADUATE (Mike Nichols, 1967)

One of the greatest films ever made.

JUDY (Rupert Goold, 2019)

Renee Zellweger won her second Oscar for pitch-perfect portrayal of Hollywood icon Judy Garland.

KRAMER VS KRAMER (Robert Benton, 1979)

This Best Picture family drama features stellar work from Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

PATRIOT’S DAY (Peter Berg, 2016)

Peter Berg’s harrowing account of the Boston Marathon bombing.

HULU

Full list of everything coming to Hulu in September can be found here.

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY (Oliver Stone, 1999)

Olive Stone’s aggressive, chaotic look at professional football.

BABYTEETH (Shannon Murphy, 2020)

An emotional relationship drama with Ben Mendolsohn and Essie Davis giving two of my favorite performances of 2020.

HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE/HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE GUANTANAMO BAY (Danny Leiner, 2004/Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2008)

Two-thirds of a classic stoner trilogy.

HOOSIERS (David Anspaugh, 1986)

One of the greatest sports movies ever made.

THE LAST BOY SCOUT (Tony Scott, 1991)

It’s directed by Tony Scott, written by Shane Black, and stars Bruce Willis. We could call this the “90’s Trifecta”.

PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (Tim Burton, 1985)

Tim Burton’s debut film is utterly insane, yet absolutely brilliant

PRISONERS (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

Denis Villeneuve’s best film to date is a dark, disturbing crime thriller featuring incredible work from Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and cinematographer Roger Deakins.

THE TERMINATOR (James Cameron, 1984)

One of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008/Chris Weitz, 2009/David Slade, 2010/Bill Condon, 2011/Bill Condon, 2012)

I’ve only seen one of these (I think New Moon?), but want to give them a whirl at some point. Maybe now is the time?

DISNEY+

Full list of everything coming to Disney+ in September can be found here.

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Gurinder Chadha, 2003)

A rousing, inspiring indie sports film.

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Marc Forster, 2018)

A somber, sweet look at Winnie the Pooh and the 100 Acre Woods gang.

D2: THE MIGHT DUCKS/D3 (Sam Weisman, 1994/Robert Lieberman, 1996)

D2 is the best of the trilogy, but D3 is pretty good and bit underrated.

MULAN (Niki Caro, 2020)

You have to pay $30 to see this one, but I have a feeling Disney’s latest live-action feature is going to be worth is.

NEVER BEEN KISSED (Raja Gosnell, 1999)

A classic 90’s rom-com featuring a delightful Drew Barrymore.

THE WOLVERINE (James Mangold, 2013)

One of the best X-Men films and the BEST Wolverine movie (hot take).

CRITERION CHANNEL

Full list of everything coming to Criterion Channel in September can be found here.

*The Criterion Channel does things a little differently than every other streaming service. The Criterion Channel, a wonderful streaming service that focuses on independent, foreign, and under-appreciates movies, doesn’t just throw a bunch of random movies to stream. They get more creative by having categories like “DOUBLE FEATURES” or “FILMS FROM…”, giving us curated lists of films that somehow blend together or feature a specific artist.*

BOYHOOD (Richard Linklater, 2014)

Richard Linklater’s ambitious twelve-year project is one of the finest film accomplishments of the last decade.

THE LOVELESS (Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery, 1981)

Kathryn Bigelow’s debut is one I have been dying to see and one I am going to check out as soon as it is available.

THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNES VARDA

Agnes Varda was a true artist and Criterion has put all of her work into one comprehensive collection which features all of her feature length films as well as her short films.

SATURDAY MATINEE

DUCK SOUP (Leo McCarey, 1933)

My favorite Marx Brothers film and one of the greatest comedies ever made.

SATURDAY MATINEE

CHARLOTTE’S WEB (Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto, 1973)

A beautiful animated film based on the classic book.

THREE BY ROBERT GREENE

Three provocative films from a master documentarian.

Actress (2014)

Kate Plays Christine (2016)

Bisbee ’17 (2018)

DIRECTED BY ALBERT BROOKS

Albert Brooks is one of the greatest comedic minds we’ve ever had. This block of films looks at his genius behind the camera.

Real Life (1979)

Modern Romance (1981)

Lost in America (1985)

Defending Your Life (1991)

Mother (1996)

DOUBLE FEATURE: TEARS OF THE CLOWN

LENNY (Bob Fosse, 1974)

JO JO DANCER, YOUR LIFE IS CALLING (Richard Pryor, 1986)

Two unflinching films delve into the self-destructive dark sides of a pair of comedy legends. Lenny features Dustin Hoffman in a jagged portrait of Lenny Bruce. In Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, Richard Pryor draws on his own personal demons in the only narrative feature written and directed by the comedy legend.

BY THE BOOK

A slew of films based on legendary books, from Great Expectations to The Hours and many, many more.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Rowland V. Lee, 1934)

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

La bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)

Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, 1939)

Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)

Anna Karenina (Julien Duvivier, 1948)

Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948)

The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)

The Idiot (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)

The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)

Robinson Crusoe (Luis Buñuel, 1954)

Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)

The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)

Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)

Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960)

Zazie dans le métro (Louis Malle, 1960)

Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1961)

Lord of the Flies (Peter Brook, 1963)

Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963)

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964)

Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)

Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966)

War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1966)

Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)

The Angel Levine (Ján Kadár, 1970)

Dodes’ka-den (Akira Kurosawa, 1970)

The Phantom Tollbooth (Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow, and Dave Monahan, 1970)

The Little Prince (Stanley Donen, 1974)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)

The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977)

The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)

The Getting Of Wisdom (Bruce Beresford, 1977)

Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima, 1978)

Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)

My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)

Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)

Wise Blood (John Huston, 1979)

You Are Not I (Sara Driver, 1981)

Under the Volcano (John Huston, 1984)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)

My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström, 1985)

Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986)

An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990)

The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)

Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Volker Schlöndorff, 1990)

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (Peter Kosminsky, 1992)

The Castle (Michael Haneke, 1997)

The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)

The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999)

The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)

The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002)

Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008)

Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman, 2011)

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)

Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017)

HBOMAX

Full list of everything coming to HBOMax in August can be found here.

CLERKS (Kevin Smith, 1994)

Kevin Smith’s indie sensation is a masterclass in microbudget cinema.

THE CONVERSATION (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

In-between The Godfather and The Godfather II, Francis Ford Coppola made this Palme d’Or winning thriller about a surveillance expert (a brilliant Gene Hackman) who has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (David Fincher, 2008)

David Fincher’s gorgeous film about a man who ages backwards.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Sidney Lumet, 1975)

Sidney Lumet’s best film features masterful work from Al Pacino and John Cazzalle.

THE INVISIBLE MAN (Leigh Whannel, 2020)

Elisabeth Moss gives one of the best performances of 2020 in Leigh Whannel’s chilling remake of the Universal classic.

JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

Oliver Stone’s brilliant account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the conspiracy behind it.

JUST MERCY (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2019)

An inspiring film with excellent performances from Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

MIDNIGHT RUN (Martin Brest, 1988)

This crime-buddy-road movie is an absolute blast and features one of Robert De Niro’s most underrated performances.

POINT BREAK (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)

Kathryn Bigelow’s surfing-cop thriller is one of the best action movies of the 90’s.

SNAKES ON A PLANE (David R. Ellis, 2006)

An iconic B-movie featuring a truly great Samuel L. Jackson performance.

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